The Study of Religion

An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods

George D. Chryssides, Ron Geaves

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781780938400
• eBook ISBN: 9781780936703
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Comparative Religion

This updated textbook unravels the complex issues related to methodology and theory in the study of religion. It equips students with the knowledge needed for the academic study of religion, explaining the history of the methodology, including ideas of key theorists, and discusses key issues in the field, such as gender, phenomenology, and the insider/outsider discourse. Updated throughout, additional material includes:
-New chapter on colonialism and post-colonialism
-New chapter on insider/outsider discourse
-Coverage of 'cyber-religion' and the internet as a research tool in religious studies Study and classroom features in each chapter include:
-Chapter outlines
-Case studies
-Boxed key concepts
-Discussion questions
-Chapter bibliographies The text is illustrated throughout with 35 images, and extra resources can be found online, including additional coverage of 'levels of religion'.

1

The tools of the trade

George Chryssides

Chapter Outline

Why be religious, and why study religion?

Studying religion and studying religions

RK, RE, RI and RS

Theology, divinity and Religious Studies

Comparative religion

Defining religion

Some definitions of religion: Substantive and functional

‘Functionalist’ definitions of religion

Religion and ‘ultimate concern’

The ‘salient features’ approach

Discussion points

Why be religious, and why study religion?

Religious behaviour can often seem strange to the outsider. Why should people meet together for an hour or so on a Sunday morning, and stand, sit or kneel at predetermined intervals, sing hymns, perhaps burn incense and light candles, and do many more things that would be regarded as downright bizarre if an individual performed them outside the context of organized worship? If the reader doubts their apparent strangeness, he or she might try singing a hymn on the bus to work, or even be seen reading a Bible in public. What do such actions achieve, and why do some people engage in them? The aim of studying religion is to make sense of religious behaviour: neither to endorse it, nor to criticize it, but to endeavour to understand it.

As we shall see, different people are religious for different reasons. Some believers may feel that their everyday lives are enhanced by worship; a practising Christian once told one of the authors that he went to church each Sunday ‘to psych myself up for the week’. Other believers may hope for more definite benefits, like healing, or coping with a disappointment or bereavement. Some may feel that religion offers guidance for life in the form of a moral code, and hence improves their way of living. Others may have concerns such as what happens after they die, and how they can achieve salvation or liberation, attaining whatever hope their religion offers.

Some students of religion are themselves followers of religions; others are heavily critical of religion, perhaps believing that it is simply illusion, or that it encourages strife and human divisions; while others may classify themselves as ‘interested enquirers’, feeling that there may be ‘something in religion’ but not having found any particular religious niche that suits them. These different types of enquirers all have a place in the study of religion. Whether or not any one category makes for a better student of the subject is a matter for discussion, but past and present scholars of Religious Studies have variously fitted into all three of these categories.

Just as religious believers have different reasons for being religious, students of religion have different reasons for studying the subject. There are those who have been troubled with questions like whether there is a god, and whether God can miraculously intervene in the world’s affairs, whether there is a life after death and indeed why we are here in the first place. Other students may have more worldly interests in studying religion. Religion is part of human behaviour, so understanding religion is important for understanding individuals and the societies in which they live.

Studying religion and studying religions

Students who are new to the study of religion often expect to receive sets of information on the various living faiths of the world, usually the ‘big six’: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism. Instead of an introductory course on the world’s religions, they often find themselves involved in an enquiry which is one step removed from the religions themselves. Instead of asking how specific religions began, an introduction to the study of religion focuses on how the study of religion began, beginning with scholars such as Sir J. G. Frazer, E. B. Tylor, R. R. Marett, Rudolf Otto and William James. The study often consists of seemingly abstruse theories such as evolutionism, phenomenology, postmodernism, debates about whether ‘insider’ or ‘outsider’ approaches to religion are preferable, and even what the word ‘religion’ itself truly means. The study of religion involves a variety of academic disciplines including anthropology, sociology, philosophy, theology and psychology, and asks how they contribute to understanding religion.

Most students find theoretical issues more demanding and more difficult than accounts of a religion’s practices. We can see in our mind’s eye (or in reality) a Muslim facing Mecca, a Buddhist monk sitting cross-legged in meditation or a Christian kneeling before the altar to receive the sacrament. Getting to grips with abstract theories, whose very names are frightening, is much harder. Why engage in academic study, rather than simply obtain a reasonable amount of general knowledge from quality newspapers, television documentaries and the internet?

Questions about the value of formal academic study can be asked of any subject area. A self-taught piano player may be able to play tunes ‘by ear’ at the audience’s request, impressing the listeners. The pianist may not wish to undertake formal study of the discipline, but if she wants a professional career in music, being able to play Beethoven and Schubert with accuracy and panache, then self-effort is not enough. Hours of practice are needed, often involving tedious scales and finger exercises. Moreover, good musicianship is not simply a matter of playing notes proficiently: technical expertise needs to be combined with a knowledge of the history and theory of music, and, most especially, of musicology – the study of the principles of interpreting musical writings.

Similarly, some people can learn enough about religion to meet their non-academic needs. Those who practise a religion will certainly know the fundamental practices required of its adherents, how the festival year is celebrated and how rites of passage are marked. They will know something about their religion’s founder-leaders and the stories associated with them, and probably something of their faith’s history. This is no doubt sufficient for religious practice, and they may not need academic study. Equally, there is nothing inherently wrong in having a mild interest in religion – perhaps enough to prompt oneself to read the odd coffee-table book, watch the occasional television documentary, keep up with religious affairs in the news, and perhaps attend an occasional religious gathering, extra-mural lecture or evening class. To maintain such a level of interest is certainly better than being ignorant about religion, or dismissing it as trivial or unimportant. Such activities, however, commendable as they are, cannot yield the level of understanding and expertise that are needed to study religion professionally or undertake a career associated with it, any more than bashing out a few tunes on a piano and attending the occasional concert makes someone a competent musician.

To understand religion, there are obvious problems in simply relying on media reports and popular pieces of writing. The most obvious drawback is that the media are frequently unreliable, biased or sensationalist. While this chapter was being written, one internet provider used the headline ‘Indian woman marries statue’ (AOL News, 29 June 2002), claiming that in a Hindu ceremony a woman was literally married to a stone image of a deity; and a television documentary alleged that the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, kept tens of thousands of secret files on known paedophiles in their ranks, about whom the organization refused to act. Meanwhile, in the wake of 11 September 2001, various news agencies continue to propagate misleading information about ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ and jihad.

No serious student of religion can accept such accounts uncritically, and it is important to learn how to evaluate one’s sources and to raise critical questions about such stories. What kind of Hindu ceremony was being enacted? For what purpose, and with what consequences? How typical is it of Hindu practice as a whole, and how would it be understood and explained by those taking part? What do the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach about family life and protecting children? What kind of evidence is needed before their ministerial elders will take sanctions against an erring member? How do they see their relationship with civil authorities, and does this affect their decisions as to whether to report crimes or to deal with malpractices internally? With regard to the alleged phenomenon of Islamic fundamentalism, a student of religion needs to explore what the word ‘fundamentalism’ actually means. Is it a term Muslim extremists use of themselves and if not, why not? Is Islam as a religion really bound up with acts of terrorism? After all, the word ‘Islam’ comes from the same etymological root as the Hebrew shalom, meaning ‘peace’. How does this relate to the concept of jihad, and does the concept really mean ‘holy war’?

These are all examples of questions that would be raised within the academic study of religion. It is worth mentioning, too, that whereas the media typically disseminate ‘stories’ that are intended to gain immediate impact, academic study involves systematic study. Academic study involves more than ‘sound bytes’ of information, whether these are items of news or hagiographical tales. As we shall see, the ‘narrative dimension’ is an important aspect of most religions, but it is not the only one. Understanding a religion means knowing the fundamental doctrines that underpin it, and how they influence its scriptures and other sacred writings, its rituals and festivals, and its forms of devotion.

‘Systematic’ study has two crucial aspects. First, it views religions as ‘systems’: that is to say, it seeks to explore how the various components of religions hang together and interrelate, rather than simply reporting individual or un-connected pieces of information. Second, it critically examines its sources. Unlike certain sectors of the media, who may keep their sources confidential and publish on the basis of slender evidence, the academic study of religion identifies the sources of information. Unless such sources are declared, we have no means of knowing whether they are reliable or biased, whether they come from adherents of a religion, from outsiders or from critics, and whether they are ‘official’ statements or individual opinions. To say this is not to imply that unreliable, biased or idiosyncratic sources are to be disregarded, but rather that all sources should be known, and assessed accordingly.

It is unfortunate that the term ‘academic’ is so often used in a dismissive or even pejorative way. In popular parlance, to say that a matter is ‘merely academic’ is to dismiss it as unimportant, abstruse, irrelevant or pedantic. The medieval Christian scholar-saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) is often credited with speculating how many angels could dance on the head of a pin – although there is no evidence that he ever discussed this topic – and such speculation is assumed to epitomize academic study. While academics have spent years studying topics of little general interest, the study of contemporary World Religions is a much-needed corrective to media stereotyping, which fosters misunderstanding and prejudice. Common to popular assumption, studying religion academically does not entail journeying through long dark alleys of abstruse erudition. It is simply a quest for reliable, accurate understanding of the world’s religious traditions, carried out in a manner as free from prejudice as is humanly attainable. As with all other academic disciplines, there are methods and techniques the student needs to learn.

RK, RE, RI and RS

There are a number of fields of study related to religion. Students who are unfamiliar with the study of religion, not to mention some colleagues in other subject areas, often wrongly equate RS (Religious Studies) with RE (Religious Education), RI (Religious Instruction) and RK (Religious Knowledge). The nature and purpose of Religious Studies has been clouded, first by the history of its role in schools and second by successive British governments, who have viewed Religious Education as likely to foster and develop morality, or by teachers who believe that the study of religion has the effect of creating and developing one’s ‘spirituality’. Some unpacking of these different labels and different rationales for Religious Studies is therefore necessary.

In the first half of the twentieth century Britain could be described as a ‘Christian country’. There were few rivals to mainstream Christianity: apart from church buildings, virtually the only other signs of religion were Jewish synagogues, gospel halls, Christadelphian ecclesia, and Unitarian and Quaker meeting houses. Even the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (better known as the Mormons) and the Jehovah’s Witnesses had not yet attracted the thousands that they now do. A very small number of Muslim communities existed, but only one purpose-built mosque, in Woking, Surrey, erected in 1894.

It is therefore understandable that school education should have been placed in the context of mainstream Christianity. It was customary for a morning assembly to begin with the singing of a Christian hymn, the reading of a Bible passage and Christian prayers. Schools typically had chaplains, whose function was to conduct services to mark the beginning and end of each school term. A weekly lesson, variously called ‘RK’ or ‘Scripture’, was generally taught by a non-specialist teacher, who would select a passage from a ‘school Bible’ – a children’s anthology of Bible stories. In a culture where the Christian faith remained virtually unchallenged, the assumption was that the school could safely replicate the function of the Church, teaching the Christian Bible as if its stories were indisputably historical, and instilling virtuous habits such as prayer and devotion.

All this changed in the 1960s, for two reasons. First, secularization took a toll on mainstream churches, whose membership declined substantially from 1960 onwards. Secularization, however, meant more than simply dwindling congregations on Sundays: the Church had lost its hold on people’s lives and minds. (We shall have more to say about secularization in Chapter 4.) The second factor was the substantial immigration that began in the late 1950s, when the British government invited people from India, Pakistan and the West Indies to enter Britain to solve a labour shortage problem. With the people came their religions, whose presence is visibly part of Britain’s religious landscape today.

Studying religion – at least within an educational establishment – can therefore no longer be equated with the transmission of any specific faith, such as Christianity. In the face of a multiplicity of faith traditions, the study of religion is not about passing on an agreed body of knowledge, increasing one’s faith or training students to become officials within religious organizations. Our students have sometimes reported that, having mentioned to someone that they are studying religion, they have received the response, ‘You’re training to be a vicar, then?’ Such a response, of course, conflates studying a subject with practising it. There is no more reason to assume that a student of religion is religious than there is to assume that a student of criminology is a criminal, or that a student of French Studies is French! Whether a follower of a religion has a better understanding of religion than the outsider has been much debated, but both insiders and outsiders have contributed to the study of religion. We shall not enter the debate here, but instead clarify the respective roles of RS, RK, RI and RE.

RI (Religious Instruction) is a term that derives from the practice, mainly within churches, of transmitting one’s faith. The term ‘instruction’ means an attempt to pass on an agreed body of knowledge and set of practices, which simply have to be learned without question. The use of the term ‘instruction’, for example, prevails in schools of motoring, where the pupil’s task is unquestioningly to learn and apply the rules of the road, and to operate the vehicle in the way the instructor dictates, without criticism, deviation or innovation. In a similar way instruction of converts, and of new generations of believers, has often taken place within religious institutions. It used to be common practice in mainstream churches for children to have to learn the Catechism, a short book set out in question-and-answer form, whose answers the catechumen learned to recite verbatim. Anyone seeking admission to a religious community will of course be expected to know the protocol associated with participation in its practices, as well as the underlying rationale for them. Religious instruction is therefore ‘confessional’: its teachers were unashamedly committed to the religion that they taught, and the aims of teacher and pupil alike were to build and strengthen understanding of and commitment to the religion for which instruction was given.

RK (Religious Knowledge) is an expression that has almost become obsolete. About half a century ago it was used in some British schools to name lessons in (almost exclusively Christian) religion. The word ‘knowledge’, of course, is somewhat problematic. To claim to know something is to claim that it is true, and, even if some students of religion may claim to ‘know the truth’, any such claim can be contested by others. One cannot assume a body of agreed knowledge within a field that is fraught with controversy. Certainly, there exist some basic facts that might be acknowledged by all who study religion: for example, it is very rare to find scholars and teachers who deny...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Introduction
• 1 The tools of the trade  George Chryssides
• 2 Methodology in religious studies  George Chryssides and Ron Geaves
• 3 Insiders and outsiders  George Chryssides
• 4 Does size matter?  George Chryssides
• 5 Key figures in the study of religion  George Chryssides
• 6 Phenomenology and its critics  George Chryssides
• 7 Colonialism and postcolonialism in the study of religion  Ron Geaves
• 8 Authenticity and diversity  Ron Geaves
• 9 Fieldwork in the study of religion  Ron Geaves
• 10 Religion and gender  Ron Geaves
• 11 The question of truth  Ron Geaves
• 12 The internet as a resource in the study of religion  George Chryssides
• Bibliography
• Index